Donald Macrae was born on 8 February 1916 and educated at Oundle School. After medical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital he graduated in 1938 and served as house surgeon to Professor Paterson Ross. He then joined the staff of the Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital, Alton, as a resident medical officer. In 1939 he transferred to the Morland Clinics, then the private hospital of Sir Henry Gauvin. During the second world war Sir Henry accepted the care of an entire Belgian orthopaedic hospital for children at the Morland Clinics for which Macrae became almost entirely responsible. Following Sir Henry's death he became superintendent of the renamed Sir Henry Gauvain Hospital which took care of some very advanced surgical tuberculosis cases from the Channel Islands and elsewhere. Following the war, Macrae completed his Final FRCS in 1951. In 1954 his hospital was absorbed into the NHS and he was appointed orthopaedic consultant to the Southampton Group of Hospitals and the Lord Mayor Treloar Orthopaedic Hospital. Although he continued to maintain his interest in the regional bone and joint tuberculosis unit, in which he had sole charge, he also developed a practice in the surgery of trauma. Jock Macrae was a most stimulating person and a loyal friend and colleague. A man of integrity and industry, he never forgot a patient and never abandoned a difficult problem. He was a scrupulous surgeon, a painstaking teacher and greatly loved by those he trained. In his early years he had developed a delightful lakeside garden and devoted many of his winter evenings to an impressive stamp collection. He married a Bart's sister and was survived by his wife, two daughters and a son when he died on 19 July 1977, aged 61 years.